In a challenging market, it’s essential to understand individual organisations’ propensity to spend
In 2022, it was clients’ determination to meet their post-pandemic growth targets that fuelled a rise in demand for external support. Today, clients are spending because they’re worried they won’t be able to do so in the future. Consulting and professional services firms need to adapt.
Three quarters of client organisations emerged from the COVID crisis with more ambitious corporate goals, the result of realising that genuinely transformational change was possible, albeit under extreme conditions. Chronically short-staffed, most senior executives also realised that there was little possibility of their being able to achieve their objectives without help—which in turn led to global growth across the professional services sector of around 11% in 2021. By contrast, we’re forecasting growth of around 8% in 2023, as organisations trim their budgets.
In this environment, a professional services firm’s ability to target clients with a higher-than-average propensity to spend is critical, but the profile of buyers who fall into this category is changing.
The key hallmarks of big spenders in 2023-2024
- They’re more senior: Sixty-four percent of CxOs say they expect to spend more on consulting services, compared to 50% of departmental heads.